


Before the Inquisition: Lavellan

by Zekeboy98



Series: The Inquisitor Saga [5]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26217958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zekeboy98/pseuds/Zekeboy98
Summary: Take a look at a defining moment in Kaya Lavellan's life before she became the Inquisitor: Her experience with the human settlement of Wyleth.
Series: The Inquisitor Saga [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1489745
Kudos: 1





	Before the Inquisition: Lavellan

After traveling days trying to find a remotely quiet territory and using most of the early morning to settle down their aravels and build their camp, the Lavellan Clan had finally found a land they could call home, for a short while anyway. A young Kaya had spent most of her time helping Halla Mother, Iolanna, tend to the halla while listening to her tales about the elven goddess of navigation and the Mother of the Halla, Ghilan’nain. In her 12 years of life of listening to tales about the Creators from the clan’s Hahren, she found tales about Ghilan’nain to be her favorite. 

“And Ghilan'nain prayed to the gods for help. Andruil sent her hares to Ghilan'nain and they chewed through the ropes that bound her, but Ghilan'nain was still wounded and blind, and could not find her way home. So Andruil turned her into a beautiful white deer—the first halla.” Iolanna said, finishing her tale of the Mother of the Halla.

It was a tale that Kaya heard dozens of times, but never got tired of. It had become a sort of tradition for them after successfully setting up camp somewhere.

“Thank you Halla Mother.” Kaya bowed.

“Of course Kaya.” Iolanna replied. “Thank you for helping me with the halla.”

Kaya stepped away from the halla keep and started walking over towards the largest aravel on the other side of the camp. On her path there, she passed by her other clan mates who waved at her. Many of them were hunters, getting ready to finish setting up a perimeter around the camp from invaders while others were simply other children her age playing tag between the aravels. As she neared the large aravel, she could see Keeper Deshanna admiring the tall trees of the forest.

“Ah yes.” she whispered to herself. “This is an excellent camping ground.”

Hearing the crunching of branches and grass in front of her, Keeper Deshanna looked down and saw Kaya approaching her.

“Young Kaya.” Keeper Deshanna said with a smile.

“Keeper Deshanna.” Kaya bowed.

Before the two of them could exchange any other words, the rapid crunching of branches and grass was heard coming from the side of the aravel. The two of them were introduced to a sweating and tired elf with long, straight black hair.

“Young Khidell.” Keeper Deshanna lightly chuckled.

“Keeper Deshanna.” Khidell bowed. “Sorry I’m late. Master Faelyn was just showing me a new longbow he made for the Hunt Master.”

“It is fine.” Keeper Deshanna assured him. “Now that you both are here, I can tell you the task before us today.”

Keeper Deshanna guided her hand to the two wooden staves leaning against the aravel. Kaya and Khidell each grabbed one and returned to her side as the three of them started walking through the camp.

“Now that camp is finally set and our hunters are finishing up our perimeter, I must tell you two of a village that some of our hunters have spotted nearby. A human settlement that our clan has never previously made contact with. I cannot say for certain whether these humans will be hostile or friendly to us, but I believe it is imperative to make contact with them and let them know of our presence. As my potential apprentices, I would like the two of you to accompany me to the village.” Keeper Deshanna explained.

Kaya and Khidell looked at each other for a moment. This was a first for the both of them. Never in their lives had they ever accompanied Keeper Deshanna to negotiations and talks with human settlements. For the most part, she did them by herself given that many of the settlements knew of their clan and had mostly positive if not neutral relations with them. After nodding at each other, the two of them looked back at the Keeper and agreed to her invitation.

“Ma serannas.” Keeper Deshanna smiled. “We should make haste to the village now. At least before it gets too busy.”

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After twenty minutes of walking through the woods in the direction that the hunters pointed them towards, the three of them finally approached the outskirts of the village. Before taking another step, Keeper Deshanna stopped them and turned to Kaya and Khidell.

“I want this interaction to be a teaching moment for you two.” she said. “As it is, I do not want any of you speaking up. Only listening.”

“Yes Keeper.” the two of them bowed.

“Good.” Keeper Deshanna smiled. “Let us begin.”

Taking their first steps into the village, there weren’t many people outside save for some kids playing around with wooden swords and a few adults tending to their cattle. It took less than a minute for the three of them to get noticed by the children first, who stopped playing and started slowly moving behind haystacks to whisper amongst each other. After a minute of walking through the village, the adults wandering outside discovered the three of them and gave disgusted looks. Kaya could see Khidell visibly getting irritated, but Keeper Deshanna whispered to him to not get worked up over their petty actions. After successfully approaching the center of the village, Keeper Deshanna stopped them and simply stood there. Kaya could hear the nasty whispers the humans were producing and took a closer step to the Keeper. A few minutes later, a larger crowd of people started approaching the scene and joined in on the discontented whispers. Finally after several more moments of whispers, one soul decided to squeeze through the crowd and approached the three elves.

“What is going on here?” the man said, folding his arms.

“Greetings.” Keeper Deshanna bowed. “I hope that I speak with the leader of this village.”

“Yes, you are.” the man said, keeping his same defensive tone.

“I am Keeper Deshanna, leader of the Lavellan Dalish Clan and I wanted to inform you that my clan has set up camp north of here.” Keeper Deshanna explained.

More intense whispers commenced in the crowd as Kaya found herself looking at them all.

“We believed it necessary to tell you.” Keeper Deshanna continued, despite the louder whispers. “In case you have any residents here that wander near the area.”

“Well, we do have a few hunters here in the village responsible for bringing back meat and berries for the village and they tend to hunt near the area.” the leader explained. “Your clan may complicate things.”

“We hope not to.” Keeper Deshanna responded. “My hunters will also need to hunt in the area to find food for our clan as well, but I hope we can compromise through trade.”

“What do your people have to trade?” the leader scoffed.

“We’re a nomadic people.” Keeper Deshanna calmly replied. “We have skins, furs, herbs and metals from all over the Free Marches.”

“Hmmm…” the leader pondered.

Looking around at his people, he saw that most of the whispers had ceased and now all eyes were on him. After another moment of pondering, he finally came to a decision.

“Very well.” the leader said. “You may stay, for a little while anyway.”

“A little while is all we ask.” Keeper Deshanna agreed.

The crowd started to disperse as the leader of the village finally introduced his name to the Keeper: Mayor Wyleth. Kaya looked at Khidell to see that he was whispering to himself, trying to calm himself from anger after the near antagonistic meeting and the nasty remarks about them from the whispers. After looking away from him, she found herself gazing at a father and his son. The father had coal marks all across his shirt and pants and a full dark beard, while the son held a journal in his hands as he gazed back at her.

**Despite the circumstances and remarks, Kaya believed her first negotiation talk with the Keeper went well enough.**


End file.
